CS Knowledge Base

First attested as een beemd de Schelm genaamd in 1606. Likely cognate with dialectal scheluw (“crooked, askew”).

• IPA^(key): /sxɛlm/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: Schelm
• Rhymes: -ɛlm
• Homophone: schelm

Schelm n

1. a hamlet in Deurne, North Brabant, Netherlands

• van Berkel, Gerard; Samplonius, Kees (2018), Nederlandse plaatsnamen verklaard (in Dutch), Mijnbestseller.nl, →ISBN

From Middle High German schelme (“pest, plague; those who have fallen in battle”), Old High German scalmo (“plague”), from Proto-West Germanic *skalmjan, umlauted derivation from *skalman (“plague, epidemic, corpse”), of uncertain origin, but possibly from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“to split, part, divide”) or *(s)kelh₁- (“to parch, wither”).

Cognate with Middle Low German schelm (“carrion, cadaver”), Dutch schelm, Icelandic skelmir (“rogue”).^[1]

• IPA^(key): /ʃɛlm/

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

Schelm m (strong, genitive Schelmes or Schelms, plural Schelme, feminine Schelmin)

1. imp, rogue; (modern usage) prankster, rascal
   • 1808, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, “Marthens Garten”, in Faust: Der Tragödie erster Teil [Faust, Part One]‎^[1]:

     Hab ich vor dem Menschen ein heimlich Grauen, / Und halt ihn für einen Schelm dazu! / Gott verzeih mir's, wenn ich ihm unrecht tu!

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 2025 October 13, Katrin Bettina Müller, “„Die drei Rätsel“ an der Deutschen Oper: Es rumpelt am Himmel und im Bauch”, in Die Tageszeitung: taz‎^[2], →ISSN:

     Das große Wort führt ein Junge, Lasso (Emil Vandersee), ein Schelm in gestreiften Hosen.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• Originally a derogatory term, in modern usage mostly associated with playfulness (through semantic amelioration).

• → Polish: szelma
• → Russian: ше́льма (šélʹma)

• “Schelm” in Duden online
• “Schelm”, in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache‎^[3] (in German)